Mineralogical hardness

You can view data for three different hardnesses.

Hardness ranges on scale from 1 to 10 and mineralogical hardness depends upon the ability of a material to scratch another.

Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a circular periodic table heatscape style.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a spiral periodic table heatscape style.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a 3D spiral periodic table column style in which the height of the column is proportional to the property.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a 3D spiral periodic table column style in which the height of the column is proportional to the property.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a 3D spiral periodic table column style in which the height of the column is proportional to the property.
Image showing periodicity of the chemical elements for mineralogical hardness in a 3D spiral periodic table column style in which the height of the column is proportional to the property. The only differences between this picture and that above are the colours of the background and the base.

Units

Moh scale

Notes

The scale is roughly logarithmic, that is, a material with a hardness of 8 is roughly 10 times as hard as another material whose hardness is 7, which in turn is 10 times as hard as a material whose hardness is 6, and so on. The minerals chosen by Moh for this scale are:

  • 10: diamond
  • 9: corundum
  • 8: topaz
  • 7: quartz
  • 6: orthoclase
  • 5: apatite
  • 4: fluorite
  • 3: calcite
  • 2: gypsum
  • 1: talc

Literature sources

  1. G.V. Samsonov (Ed.) in Handbook of the physicochemical properties of the elements, IFI-Plenum, New York, USA, 1968.
Explore the element of your choice through this periodic table.
1 2   3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
1
H
2
He
3
Li
4
Be
5
B
6
C
7
N
8
O
9
F
10
Ne
11
Na
12
Mg
13
Al
14
Si
15
P
16
S
17
Cl
18
Ar
19
K
20
Ca
21
Sc
22
Ti
23
V
24
Cr
25
Mn
26
Fe
27
Co
28
Ni
29
Cu
30
Zn
31
Ga
32
Ge
33
As
34
Se
35
Br
36
Kr
37
Rb
38
Sr
39
Y
40
Zr
41
Nb
42
Mo
43
Tc
44
Ru
45
Rh
46
Pd
47
Ag
48
Cd
49
In
50
Sn
51
Sb
52
Te
53
I
54
Xe
55
Cs
56
Ba
 *
71
Lu
72
Hf
73
Ta
74
W
75
Re
76
Os
77
Ir
78
Pt
79
Au
80
Hg
81
Tl
82
Pb
83
Bi
84
Po
85
At
86
Rn
87
Fr
88
Ra
 **
103
Lr
104
Rf
105
Db
106
Sg
107
Bh
108
Hs
109
Mt
110
Ds
111
Rg
112
Cn
113
Nh
114
Fl
115
Mc
116
Lv
117
Ts
118
Og
 
*Lanthanoids *
57
La
58
Ce
59
Pr
60
Nd
61
Pm
62
Sm
63
Eu
64
Gd
65
Tb
66
Dy
67
Ho
68
Er
69
Tm
70
Yb
**Actinoids **
89
Ac
90
Th
91
Pa
92
U
93
Np
94
Pu
95
Am
96
Cm
97
Bk
98
Cf
99
Es
100
Fm
101
Md
102
No